@TBC

Don't forget the Pope follows the "one true faith".

@George

Is your religion the "one true faith"? Or are you strictly non-denominational Christian?

Which leads me to religion in general:

Is Anglican the "one true faith" and Graham is 'right' (all the other Christians are wrong), or Judaism, or Scientology, or Hinduism, or do the Buddhists have it right, or maybe the Rastafarians? I'm hoping it's the Rastas, mon.



All we atheists do is base our actions on the best of our knowledge and our consciences, we don't always get it right, but we get by. Atheists have yet to fly plains into buildings or bomb family planning clinics - I'm not saying this would never happen, but I do know religion would not be the catalyst.

Severin...indeed He does (I afford him a capital cos he IS Christ's vicar after all, the lone rep on Earth for the heavenly Father..unless you happen to be Jewish, or Muslim, or.... as you point out.

Defender of 'the faith', but certainly not defender of the truth or any observable morality.

As for Canterbury, that's as big a joke as being 'the only gay in the village' these days, so it seems to me.

Do use the googles for this paper... "Believers' estimates of God's beliefs are more egocentric than estimates of other people's beliefs",
Epley, Converse, Delbosc, Monteleone, Cacioppo.

www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0908374106

An oops on spelling "plains" should read "planes".

TBC - Thanks for following my 'logic' such as it is.

A pleasure Severin.... did you read that short paper I posted?

It rather shows how slim 'belief' really is, and also points to my comment before about "The Dice Man", where you own thoughts create the answers, not some external agency.

It was Bush that told himself to go to war, not any god.

It was Blair who told him to kill hundreds of thousands of people, not any imaginary gods.

It is the essentially life sustaining thought that drives people to help each other, not any gods.

It is the bad character that drives Catholic abusers, and crime figures who deal out thieving and murder, not any imaginary devils or demons.

I have no idea what prevents others from having sufficient belief in themselves to handle the 'void'.

Too much proselytising in childhood I suspect.

“Religion was seen as a tool being used by the capitalists to oppress the masses.”
Exactly, thank you Shadow Minister.
Where, in all the Gospels is there any indication that Jesus was a Capitalist, or would have supported Capitalism?
For at least 1500 years, the priestly caste has been closely allied to the nobility, with the robes and vestments, the pomp and ceremony, the reverence, bowing and scraping, kissing rings etc, etc. In direct opposition to the 'God' they professed to worship; a lowly carpenter who owned nothing, and washed his disciples feet.
Some of the comments of Pope Pius X11 tend to indicate his support of Hitler and Mussolini against the Communists wasn't just about atheism; he apparently felt the 'working classes' should be obedient to private capital, and not “nameless collectives”.
Personally, I can easily see how a Christian can be a socialist; what I have never been able to understand is how any rich man (Capitalist) can claim to be a Christian.
I have always described myself as a 'de facto' atheist; I don't know if there is a God (although I suspect, in a fractal universe a supreme being/mind is statistically inevitable) but I do know that I refuse to believe in a personal God who can be petitioned through prayer -but only responds to the favoured (very very) few, while the vast bulk of humanity suffers.
This God fails Jesus' own test; like the two 'men of religion' in the parable of the Good Samaritan, God appears to spend all his time crossing the road.
He (God) definitely doesn't treat the vast majority of us like 'neighbours'.
So perhaps George's comment about Graham is a truly 'Christian attitude'.
He who makes the rules shouldn't have to abide by them.

You posters might seriously consider the following:

There is no God, but God.

socratease